Months Supply of Housing Inventory in Oconee County, GA

We have all heard that nationally the inventory level is supposedly at 9.4 months. I have indicated via a recent blog post that in Athens it is more like 12.5 months based upon recent 12-months sales figures. Today I wanted to look at Oconee County, GA. I also wanted to break it down to various price points. It seems that homes in excess of $250,000 are selling much slower with longer days on market this year. Let's compare inventory levels of below $250,000 and those over $250,000 in Oconee County, GA.

To begin with there were 303 homes sold in Oconee County, GA over the last 12-months (through 9/2/09). Of these home sales, 148 homes were over $250,000 in sales price. As of today, and according to the Athens MLS, there are 394 homes on the market for sale. (Of these only 11 (or 2.7%) were foreclosure resales too by the way, but that is for a different blog post.) From this you could deduce that we have roughly 15.6 months of inventory on the market for sale. To have a balanced market we need to get this figure down to about six (6) months supply of homes on the market for sale or an inventory level of 151 homes.

There were also 280 out of 394 homes currently on the market are listed for sale at over $250,000. At a current clip of 12.33 home sales per month in Oconee County, GA over the past 12-months, inventory levels for homes in excess of $250,000 would be said to be at a whopping level of 22.7 months or almost two (2) full years.

Actually if you are one of the lucky one's that have your home on the market for sale in Oconee and it is listed below $250,000 the level of inventory is 'only' 8.8 months. This is below the national average and closer to a balanced market between buyers and sellers.

What does this mean for homes over $250,000 that are on the market for sale? Either sellers need to understand that the road is long and patience is definitely a virtue as they market their homes for sale or drop your price and try to be as competitive as possible if you must sell sooner rather than later. Dropping your price however is not a guarantee as there is so much inventory to pick and choose from today with a limited number of buyers in today's market for sale. Contact me and I will tell you how I can sell your home in 90 days, but only contact me about my 90 day home sale plan if you are motivated!

Top Real Estate Web Sites

According to Hitwise.com, websites for 'Business and Finance - Real Estate', ranked by Visits for the week ending 08/29/2009.

1. Realtor.com 7.32%
2. Zillow 3.52%
3. ZipRealty 2.59%
4. Yahoo! Real Estate 2.44%
5. Rent.com 2.26%
6. Trulia.com 2.15%
7. MSN Real Estate 2.07%
8. ServiceMagic 1.95%
9. Homes.com 1.76%
10. RE/MAX 1.50%
11. HUD 1.45%
12. Apartments.com 1.39%
13. AOL Real Estate 1.26%
14. Century 21 1.24%
15. Homegain 1.24%
16. MyNewPlace 1.22%
17. Apartment Guide 1.11%
18. RealtyTrac 0.86%
19. mlsfinder.com 0.82%
20. ForRent.com 0.81%

As has been typical, the Top five (5) sites attract roughly 1 in 5 visits to real estate search sites while the Top 20 control almost 40 percent of all visits. Are you getting the right kind of exposure to your Athens GA area home for sale?

Reasons to Buy a Home

If you're not sure whether to buy a home, consider some of the reasons that most home buyers give. People buy homes as investments, to save for their futures, to accomplish the American dream. Once you have saved for down payment and made the emotional commitment you're ready to buy your first home.

Planning Renovation During a Tough Economy

You may look at your personal finances and the bad economy around you and think that now is not the time to be putting money into a home renovation. Advice from a professional builder says now may be the best time to look into that renovation project.

Are you Ready to Buy a Home?

From Award-winning syndicated real estate and personal finance columnist, WSB Radio talk show host, and best-selling book author Ilyce Glink.

Did You Know: Size of Home Purchased

By Jessica Lautz, Research Economist

• The American Institute of Architects recently released a study, AIA Home Design Trends Survey, showing there is a growing demand away from McMansions and towards homes that are smaller.
• From the survey only 4 percent of architects reported their clients wanted more square footage this year compared to 16 percent last year.
• The smaller home size could be a reflection of a number of factors including the affect of the recession on home owners and home buyers mind set. Smaller is better and less is more. It could also be a reflection of home owners moving towards a more energy efficient home to lower energy consumption costs.
• The 2008 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers showed the average home buyer purchased a home that was 1,825 square feet.
• Those who purchased new homes typically purchased home that were larger than those who purchased home that were previously owned.

Source: 2008 NAR Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers

Copyright National Association of REALTORS®, Reprinted with permission.

If you are a buyer in our market, these are probably the best buying conditions in 30 years! If you would like to search the Athens MLS with MapTracks please take a look at listings in our “Classic City” today! On this web MLS search solution you can search every listing on the Georgia MLS for the Greater Athens area or in your Georgia town!

12.5 Months of Inventory for Sale on Athens, GA Housing Market

Well the end of the month of August brings us a new 12-month rolling time period to play with and discuss. Anytime I can 'over' analyze figures with a cup of coffee (or three or four) nearby I am in heaven.

The good is that the average sales price in Athens inched up over the previous period (12-mo's ending Aug 1, 2009) by a few hundred dollars. The average sales price in Athens is at $163,587 as compared to 12-months ending June 2008 at $168,257. This continues to back up the fact that on the average the Athens market has not lost as much ground as the mythic "national real estate market" over the past 18 months. Median sales figures from 12-months ending June 2008 show a median price of $142,400 at that reading of the numbers as compared to $139,900 today. Again, this shows only a slight fall off of home prices. I grant you the fact that at higher price points the fall off in prices can be higher, but if you look at the average to median price range in Athens it has stood up rather well.

What continues to amaze me is that when looking at sales figures of homes sold in Athens this year the average list/sold percentage is about 95 percent. This means that there is very little price roll off of list price. On price points north of $300,000 you might see this number in the 91-93 percent range.

What has continued to surprise me is that the number of sales has continued to fall off unabashed over the past year. The numbers of homes sold is off roughly 28 percent this year and 44 percent from the peak of 1382 homes sold in the 12-months ending June 2008.

All in all however, just looking at single family detached residential housing in Athens on the market for sale, with 774 homes sold in the most recent year through end of August we are looking at 12.5 months of inventory on the market for sale. We need about half that much to be in a balanced market between buyers and sellers. Note recent Online Athens article and the comments toward the end by that well spoken local young real estate broker!

*Note* 'I found the reader's comments to this article on Online Athens interesting. He is obviously either burned by the market or biased in some way. Maybe he is blinded by the national media that tells him things are bad so they must be locally too. I always preach that real estate is 'local' not national.

The numbers are what they are fortunately or not. Overall we have been less affected by foreclosures than the national average and other nearby markets. At higher price ranges the sales are even slower, and the reader to the piece in Online Athens points out all the slow sales and properties that have been on the market for awhile, but this does not mean that one can assume higher foreclosure levels and falling prices than exist in reality.'

How do you compute inventory absorption rates? You can't really. There is no way to know how fast this inventory will be depleted. In the meantime, the best one can do is to be patient if you need to sell your home and it is over $200,000 in price. If you are under $200,000 in price, I have seen this price range of the market as hot as it has been in 3+ years as of late. Almost all my listings between $120,000-$200,000 are either under contract or sold just in the last two months! If you are a buyer, the market is yours!

Showings and Contracts; Is one Dependent on the Other?

Getting traffic into your Athens, GA home for sale. That is the end all. At least they tell me it is the end all. Okay, okay, I know I am a Gen X'r and a Contrarian, but while I do agree we need showings, I still hold fast to the concept that the technology we have today does weed out and therefore reduce physical showings. This is okay. I mean, you don't want 47 people to walk through your house creating foot patterns in the carpet and also requiring you to possibly have to clean it each and every time there is a showing lined up when a handful of showings can just as well do the trick thereby creating a sought after Contract.

Examining showings on a few of the home listings that I have had recently go under contract or sell, this is my finding;

		Showings	Days on
Location		90 Days	Market
Sunset Drive		18	103
Brookstone Drive		6	137
Sterling Drive		48	269
Averages		24	169

So a few questions arise.

1. Do the number of physical showings (i.e. walking potential buyers through the front door) cause the house to have a higher probability to be sold as compared to the next home?
2. Does location weigh into whether or not a particular house is sold more quickly than another?
3. Does price factor more heavily than other variables in getting a house sold? Does price if it is too high also possibly reduce the number of showings as well as create a prohibitive environment reducing our opportunities for contracts of sale?

The answer to these questions are "no, yes," and "definitely yes."

What is almost humorous to me, forgive me if I make myself chuckle in my analytical geekness, is the fact that I did not include the sales price of any of these homes. What you might find interesting is that the home with the most showings was the least in price of the three sales. It's also quite surprising that it had the longest days on market. Why? It missed on location, the neighborhood had too much competitive inventory on the market for sale, and was vacant which hurt it compared to other homes which were furnished or staged.

The property with the least showings in Brookstone sold for 98 percent of list price, and sold at a relatively low number of days on the market. Why was this the case? It had great location for the buyer. There was also fewer comparable properties on the market for sale in this subdivision. The Sunset Drive property was the most expensive of these listings and sold in the fewest number of days on the market. This was a result of location, location, and location.

In the end, none of these sold as a result of a great number of showings where real estate professionals dragged people through these homes. None of them even had, are you sitting down, a single "Open House." They sold because of hundreds and hundreds of views online, they were priced right, and they had good location.

I know these are only three sales in my example, but I could throw you another that sold in 44 days on the market, was priced at $239,900, and had but 2 showings. Again, it sold due to location and price for the area.

Keep this in mind if you are in the process of selling your home or are thinking about it. Through keeping the "masses" off your carpet, hardwoods, and rugs, you will have less to have professionally cleaned for your buyer when it does go under contract!

Athens GA Home Sales Trends and Market for Aug 2009

Thus far in the month of August we are seeing the following Stats in the Athens, GA housing market;

Statistics (44 listings)
	Low	High	Average	Median	Total
List Price	$27,900	$670,000	$198,602	$145,200	$8,738,484
Selling Price	$23,000	$610,000	$187,530	$141,250	$8,251,337
List/Sold(%)	78.35%	101.05%	95.25%	96.36%	--
Price/SqFt ($)	$0.00	$158.52	$56.21	$67.00	--
Days on Market	19	576	149	96	--

Home Inspections in Athens, GA; Now go Infrared!

Recently I had a home inspection needed on a property a Buyer Client of mine was buying in the Greater Athens area. This was a 4300 square foot bank owned property that had been sitting for awhile so the client decided to not only do a home inspection on this "as-is" purchase, but they took my advice to use HomePro Home Inspections and had them do their "Infrared" Home Inspection service. I have blogged about infrared home inspections in the past, but I thought the results of this inspection was substantial enough to do a follow up post.

HomePro, in Watkinsville, is the only area home inspector that is certified to do infrared home inspections.

This particular home has heart pine on the floor, walls, and ceiling of the main living area as you walk in the front door. What was ultimately impressive was that the attached photo shows heat coming in from outside due to missing and loose insulation in multiple locations. The bottom photo is amazing. The caption is "heat bleeding through from attic area due to loose insulation." It really does look like it is "bleeding" too.

What is pretty impressive about the technology is that you can more accurately nail a leak in a roof, condensation in a wall due to duct work that is loose or seeping, and even find those old bottles and nails left inside a wall from when it was constructed!

Is this for everybody? Maybe not this level of service. If I were buying a distressed or foreclosed property in this day and time I would get one of these services done.

HomePro does do the same basic inspections that any home inspector might do in addition to infrared. They have their patented "Blue Book" that goes through a soothing color coded section of warm to hot to help you as a home owner, home buyer, or Realtor see what problem areas exist in a property and which one's are no big deal.

Would use HomePro and Mark Lotane again in a heartbeat to help identify potential issues. Other than Mark, no one in town can "see through walls." He is my resident Superman in terms of getting my clients answers on area homes. Not sure if he can leap tall buildings though...

Foreclosures in the Greater Athens GA area

Foreclosures in the Greater Athens GA area now linked via the Athens MLS and GA MLS to the Blog Roll. Make your foreclosure searches even easier!

Neighborhoods and Condominiums Around Athens, GA

Neighborhoods Around Athens:

• Boulder Springs - www.boulderspringssubdivision.com - low 400's
  
• Bridlegate Homes - www.bridlegate.com
• Bryce Landing - www.brycelanding.com - 180's to low 200's
• Clarksboro - www.clarksboro.com - 300's to 400's
• Colleton Oaks - www.colletonoaks.com - low 200's
• Falling Shoals - www.whiteoakhomesinc.com - from the 200's
• Lakewood Manor - www.aliciaappling.com - low 600's
• Meridian - www.meridianoconee.com - from the 550's
• Oak Grove - www.oakgroveathens.com - 200's to 500's
• Saddle Shoals - www.saddleshoals.com - mid 600's to 1M
• Townside - www.townsidehomes.com - 250's and up
• Vintage Farms - www.vintagefarmsoconee.com
• White Oak Homes - www.whiteoakhomesinc.com

Condominiums Around Athens:

• www.ansonboroughofathens.com
• www.cottagesatcreekside.com
• www.historicgeorgian.com
• www.mooseclubcondos.com
• www.redoakvillageofathens.com
• www.summitofathens.com
• www.terracesofathens.com
• www.thelodgeofathens.com
• www.theseasonsofathens.com
• www.woodlandsofathens.com

Remember that "Agency" in Real Estate defines the relationship you have with a REALTOR and who is looking out for your interests (i.e. Listing Agents represent the Seller).

Through my Buyer Rewards Program (full details at www.AthensGaHomesForSale.com) as a benefit to Buyer's working through me I give up to 1% of Seller Paid Commission toward the reduction of the purchase price of a home purchased through me! That is what I call a "Win-win!"